Changes to R22 Against North Melbourne

[Bangalore Swans]

I think we all know you don’t rate these players.

Not correct:

I was very Bullish on Stevens. I talked him up in a big way. I feel like a fool after last week performance. I think a lot of people on here were puzzled that in the last quarter he let that Saints defender run straight through him without having to change direction. He just needed to put his body in the way and show intent. He did neither.

I think Rowbottom is out of form at the current time. I think he has good strength, is brave, gives a good physical contest (contrast to Stephens) and when confidence marks it well and kicks through the ball well.

We need to get him fit and confident. Think this will happen in early 2022.

Wicks for mine has not delivered much the last couple of weeks. Always seems to get picked due to his specialised position and lack of positional competition for his place. Papley who plays a similar position wins around 4 times the number of one on one compared to Wicks. I’ve got to be careful in criticising Wicks as he is an absolute favourite on Red and White. If I’m not careful a Wicks page will be set up like the Rowbottom page and I’ll relentlessly attacked by his army of supporters.

I look forward to Barracuda making a strong case for the retention of Rowbottom, Stephens and Wicks.

[Matty10]

Buddy might need a rest. Would be keen to see McLean come in for him.

As a point of development or to give time to a viable option in case Franklin gets injured in September?

McLean showed some promise with his marking early, but I am not yet convinced that he can stand up when needed. He reminds me a little of Ben Brown in the way he attacks the ball. He jumps or stands with his arms straight up. This works well when there is no body contact but is much less effective in a contest. It was particularly noticeable in the first Freo game (from memory) where he was seemingly unable to break even in his marking contests and bring the ball to ground (making it an all or nothing scenario in a game where he was getting beaten in the air).

Can body work like this be taught? Perhaps, and I imagine that is what he would need to demonstrate at training to give the coaches confidence that he can be a worthwhile option.

I don’t get to see them train so I can’t make that judgement, but if Franklin were to go down, I would probably bring in Amartey, who has more athleticism and physicality in his attack on the aerial contest, to wax with Reid as the deeper option.

[Faunac8]

Not correct:

I was very Bullish on Stevens. I talked him up in a big way. I feel like a fool after last week performance. I think a lot of people on here were puzzled that in the last quarter he let that Saints defender run straight through him without having to change direction. He just needed to put his body in the way and show intent. He did neither.

I think Rowbottom is out of form at the current time. I think he has good strength, is brave, gives a good physical contest (contrast to Stephens) and when confidence marks it well and kicks through the ball well.

We need to get him fit and confident. Think this will happen in early 2022.

Wicks for mine has not delivered much the last couple of weeks. Always seems to get picked due to his specialised position and lack of positional competition for his place. Papley who plays a similar position wins around 4 times the number of one on one compared to Wicks. I’ve got to be careful in criticising Wicks as he is an absolute favourite on Red and White. If I’m not careful a Wicks page will be set up like the Rowbottom page and I’ll relentlessly attacked by his army of supporters.

I look forward to Barracuda making a strong case for the retention of Rowbottom, Stephens and Wicks.

Poor you being victimised like that 🥱 you make valid points about these changes and I tend to agree with your comments it’s a shame you choose to deviate from reasonable opinion to declarations so often on other occasions . Oh that and your sycophantic posts anointing your alter ego as the font of all knowledge.

[barracuda]

Not correct:

I was very Bullish on Stevens. I talked him up in a big way. I feel like a fool after last week performance. I think a lot of people on here were puzzled that in the last quarter he let that Saints defender run straight through him without having to change direction. He just needed to put his body in the way and show intent. He did neither.

I think Rowbottom is out of form at the current time. I think he has good strength, is brave, gives a good physical contest (contrast to Stephens) and when confidence marks it well and kicks through the ball well.

We need to get him fit and confident. Think this will happen in early 2022.

Wicks for mine has not delivered much the last couple of weeks. Always seems to get picked due to his specialised position and lack of positional competition for his place. Papley who plays a similar position wins around 4 times the number of one on one compared to Wicks. I’ve got to be careful in criticising Wicks as he is an absolute favourite on Red and White. If I’m not careful a Wicks page will be set up like the Rowbottom page and I’ll relentlessly attacked by his army of supporters.

I look forward to Barracuda making a strong case for the retention of Rowbottom, Stephens and Wicks.

Actually I think Wicks should be dropped. He is clearly tired having played 19 games out of a possible 20. Given it is his first year of the full workload he has made a great contribution but is not playing as well as he was earlier in the year. I guess I am just tired of hearing you say the same things over and over. It would not be the end of the world if Campbell took over his spot and he focussed on getting ready for next year.

[Captain]

As a point of development or to give time to a viable option in case Franklin gets injured in September?

McLean showed some promise with his marking early, but I am not yet convinced that he can stand up when needed. He reminds me a little of Ben Brown in the way he attacks the ball. He jumps or stands with his arms straight up. This works well when there is no body contact but is much less effective in a contest. It was particularly noticeable in the first Freo game (from memory) where he was seemingly unable to break even in his marking contests and bring the ball to ground (making it an all or nothing scenario in a game where he was getting beaten in the air).

Can body work like this be taught? Perhaps, and I imagine that is what he would need to demonstrate at training to give the coaches confidence that he can be a worthwhile option.

I don’t get to see them train so I can’t make that judgement, but if Franklin were to go down, I would probably bring in Amartey, who has more athleticism and physicality in his attack on the aerial contest, to wax with Reid as the deeper option.

It’s definitely a coin toss between McLean and Amartey. Nice to have them both.

I went with McLean given he is a different type to Reid, more of that power forward, and I was really impressed with his games early in the season when replacing Buddy. His last few games were poor and I’m hoping some confidence in the reserves might mean he is ready to go now.

Either way, it’s a nice position to be in that if Buddy is rested (or goes down) we have a couple of tall, marking options.

[Ludwig]

I said it's time to bring Melican for Fox a fortnight ago to rebalance the backline and got told off. It's the right move and needed with footy left before finals.

I've been on this for a while as well. Our defence has been as poor as I've seen it for some time. We need to make adjustments.

I would love to keep Stephens in for another game, even though he performed poorly last week. I don't think he was given a fair shot of succeeding.

Thought Rowbottom was good in the first half, but faded badly after half time. Whatever his problem is, he doesn't seem capable of pushing through a full game atm.

I would also like to see Campbell and Wanner come into the side.

If we look at teams that changed a lot the past week, changing personnel didn't seem to hinder their winning chances, as most did quite well, especially the Giants and Saints. I'm okay with resting players and continuing to experiment. We don't have the right formula just yet.

[snajik]

We win a number of games in a row, then lose one game. Apparently that means its time for wholesale changes based on the comments by some above. I don't see that happening. A couple of changes is all that is likely to happen, especially given that those missing out currently have limited practice games due to Covid/returning from injury.

Some folk like to focus on the negatives. It fills them with joy.
Some will even invent negatives.

[snajik]

I've been on this for a while as well. Our defence has been as poor as I've seen it for some time. We need to make adjustments.

I would love to keep Stephens in for another game, even though he performed poorly last week. I don't think he was given a fair shot of succeeding.

Thought Rowbottom was good in the first half, but faded badly after half time. Whatever his problem is, he doesn't seem capable of pushing through a full game atm.

I would also like to see Campbell and Wanner come into the side.

If we look at teams that changed a lot the past week, changing personnel didn't seem to hinder their winning chances, as most did quite well, especially the Giants and Saints. I'm okay with resting players and continuing to experiment. We don't have the right formula just yet.

Thought his first half was pretty good too, a few clearances which we'd been clamouring for, and some fine defensive efforts. There were many that offered less. He's averaging 60% game time this season (had 70% on Saturday) which would suggest he's not right and being managed. Not sure, but I think he was rested for most of the second half which may explain the drop off.
That was all a bit reckless. I'll possibly get a clip for writing that.

[royboy42]

Not correct:

I was very Bullish on Stevens. I talked him up in a big way. I feel like a fool after last week performance. I think a lot of people on here were puzzled that in the last quarter he let that Saints defender run straight through him without having to change direction. He just needed to put his body in the way and show intent. He did neither.

I think Rowbottom is out of form at the current time. I think he has good strength, is brave, gives a good physical contest (contrast to Stephens) and when confidence marks it well and kicks through the ball well.

We need to get him fit and confident. Think this will happen in early 2022.

Wicks for mine has not delivered much the last couple of weeks. Always seems to get picked due to his specialised position and lack of positional competition for his place. Papley who plays a similar position wins around 4 times the number of one on one compared to Wicks. I’ve got to be careful in criticising Wicks as he is an absolute favourite on Red and White. If I’m not careful a Wicks page will be set up like the Rowbottom page and I’ll relentlessly attacked by his army of supporters.

I look forward to Barracuda making a strong case for the retention of Rowbottom, Stephens and Wicks.

Why do I think you just love the attention?

[Ocker]

I was only watching on TV, but on occasions it looked to me that Stephens ran to position to provide a short option when we had the ball at half back or wing. This seemed consistent with our strategy of controlling the ball with short passes. He was was invariably ignored and I can imagine this contributing to his lessening output and apparent enthusiasm as the game progressed.

Unless we are going to use him, I can't see much point in keeping him in the team this season.

[Aprilbr]

He needs to impose himself more on the contest and stop the soft as butter tackling. In short, he needs to play more aggressively and win some of his own ball rather than relying on others to feed it to him on a platter. Does he want to be the next Brad Hill?

[Rob2120]

Looks like we are playing Saturday night at Marvel.


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